The stench of greed permeates every church or religious organization that ventures into the world of politics. Any witness for the Gospel sinks into the cesspool of backstabbing and power grabs. Every single time.

In my morning perusal of the New York Times, I found myself drawn to an article I would have usually overlooked, but we are planning on a trip into the Amazon River soon and so am naturally curious about the country.

At it turns out, the presidential election currently underway in that economically troubled nation of Brazil may very well determine whether the rest of the world will face even more destructive global warming. As the article states:

The presidential election in Brazil will not only shape the destiny of Latin America’s largest country. It is also a referendum on the fate of the Amazon: the world’s largest tropical forest, sometimes known as the lungs of the Earth.

The stakes for the planet are huge.

But it gets worse for Brazil’s indigenous people. The man who is running on the right wing platform, Jair Bolsonaro, made his preferences perfectly clear:

He has dismissed the idea of setting aside forest land for native Brazilians who have lived in the Amazon for centuries, promising that “there won’t be a square centimeter demarcated as an indigenous reserve” if he is elected.

For Bolsonaro, “it’s the economy, stupid.” If he opens those millions of acres to land to various agricultural and other development firms, the troubled economy of Brazil will more than likely begin to balloon with money, employment, and prosperity.

It’s all about money and greed. Always has been. The US boasts no moral high ground here: we rapaciously took over the land of the indigenous people on this continent, causing heartbreak and devastation that still reverberates across this–and their–land. We’ve also carelessly and intentionally polluted waterways, ground soil and the air around us in the common pursuit of economic superiority over the rest of the world.

All this has generated massive amounts of wealth in the US. A lot of that wealth, again motivated by greed, also builds hospitals, supports higher education, fights for our indigenous people AND, let us not forget, keeps churches going. Some of these churches then turn around and help the poor and oppressed peoples around the world that our greed helped destroy.

Clearly, the Scriptures demand that we practice creation care. On the other hand, a cared-for creation where most people are living in abject poverty, surrounded by disease, and with no way out, also doesn’t sound particularly theologically sound.

A World Without Greed

One of the more fascinating books I have read in the last few years is Affluence without Abundance: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen by James Suzman. Suzman explores what remains of the few hunter-gatherer societies found in a part of southern Africa. This kind of economic system, with people finding food by hunting larger animals and gathering edibles as they grew, existed for over 250,000 years.

Because such communities regularly stayed on the move, following food sources as they became available, they accumulated few possessions. Their intimate knowledge of the natural world around them meant that fifteen or twenty hours a week of work sufficed to take care of their daily needs. They enjoyed the rest of their time with relaxation, family and friend connections, movement from one place to another, and, well, sex.

It was, among other things, exceedingly egalitarian. No one person–or gender–had more stuff or more power. They traveled in small bands and worked together for survival. When food was scarce, the elderly and the children got priority. For the most part, it worked remarkably well, with good health, good teeth and reasonably long lives the norm.

It worked, of course, until those with more power and stuff, i.e., the forces of what we call civilization, showed up. The “civilized ones” immediately claimed land ownership and built fences. Their herds and farms quickly ruined ancient hunting grounds and habitats for native and nutritious plants.

In return, those conquerers flooded the formerly self-sufficient indigenous people groups with cheap and non-nutritious food. It didn’t take long: drunkenness and ill health soon permeated the societies. Interpersonal violence, previously nearly unheard of, surfaced with all its ugly ramifications.

So the hierarchical world, where few have power and the rest, generally reluctantly and often by force, support them on the land and in the mines, prevailed.

Isenberg painfully peeled off the myth of a “classless” US and exposed the sordid underbelly of a significant portion of people left out of our relentless drive to have more. Furthermore, instead of a sense of freedom and connection that the hunter-gatherers enjoyed, these essentially possessionless folk live downtrodden, unhealthy, dark and despairing lives.

What is Redemption in a Greedy World?

The question I frequently ask: how does the redemptive work of God play itself out in our world today? Frankly, in the days when Jesus walked those dusty roads in Galilee and around Jerusalem, the economic realities looked far more like our world today. The egalitarian, relaxed world of the hunter-gatherers had long since disappeared under the relentless maw of devouring greed.

I don’t see Jesus trying to break that world down so much as calling attention to the injustices it birthed and still does birth. It appears that Jesus’ big issue was the types of injustices created and supported by those with religious power.

If there is one place in the world that should indeed be just, it should be the church. That’s our witness to the world. When the church gathers unto itself riches; when the church hoards power for a small group of rulers, almost always exclusively male; when the church participates in practices that support murders and torture, as Pat Robertson and his ilk are doing by saying money from Saudi Arabia matters more than the life of one journalist; then the church has discarded its moral compass.

The problem, if you haven’t figured this out by now: the proper stance of the church is very much at odds with the kinds of economic decisions that make people and national economies prosperous.

This, above all, is why church and state must, absolutely must, disconnect. The stench of greed permeates every church or religious organization that ventures into the world of politics. Any witness for the Gospel sinks into the cesspool of backstabbing and power grabs. Every single time.

This is why Jesus said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” They are two separate things. We must not conflate them into one.

The only way to fight injustice is to practice radical justice: to live as a holy people, genuinely serving one another, denying any impulse to take power over one another, refusing to be tainted by the world of politics. That world will always, always, always, operate from profound corruption. Politics and the love of money have irrevocably married one another.

Again, to remind ourselves of what the Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

I am not doing a “Benedict Option” call here. I think good people of faith must run for public office and serve with integrity. I think we need to be in the public square.

I am saying that we do so without insisting that if people elect us, God will bless them. We must walk away from the idea that God especially anoints someone as President of the US. That kind of lie only further elevates utterly unacceptable and uncivil behavior to the norm.

We are called to serve, to take our places in the swamp, to fight the tides of corruption and greed because that is just what good people do. But anyone who does so must recognize the extreme dangers of such a role: the never-ending temptations to compromise the essential parts of the soul for the sake of more money and power. These temptations take down all but the most self-aware and self-disciplined.

Fear Drives Greed

The problem: the trap of the love of money has all large religious organizations firmly in its evil grip. Fear, fear of loss of power, prestige, and access to often massive ecclesiastical funds, has taken control.

Otherwise, continue as is but at least be honest enough to admit there is no intention of actually following Jesus.

The way of Jesus leads to the cross, to the laying down of one’s life for the sake of one’s enemies, to the release of the need to take vengeance on those who betray us. The way of Jesus carries no greed motivation, no need to exercise power over others, and insists on being last while everyone else jostles for first place.

As these big institutions continue to display their corruption and inability to live from peace and life-giving grace, I believe new movements will surface. They’ll be small and poor. And they are the hope of the future.

The Thoughtful Pastor is one woman’s way of making sense of the world, especially the intersected world of religion, business, and politics. I think, question, and connect odd dots.
I find delight in ambiguity and mystery and less tolerance of those who call themselves people of God and then use that self-description as a way to abuse others.
Background
As a retired Elder in The United Methodist Church, I have written extensively about UMC issues. Many of our institutional concerns echo national political matters.
I write the weekly religion column (Ask the Thoughtful Pastor) for the Denton Record-Chronicle newspaper. I also do film reviews, opinion pieces, and have completed one book (An Ordinary Death) with others in the works.
In the last several years, I have embraced the world of the entrepreneurial business owner and am now co-owner of North American Life Plans, a national marketing agency specializing in individual health insurance, Medicare, supplemental health, life insurance, annuities, and long-term care. This move has given me massive exposure to the world of business, to the challenges of being an owner and ultimately responsible for all that happens, to the need for careful strategic planning and wise hiring, and also to discern the parallels between effective and successful businesses and effective and successful religious organizations. You can read more about the author here.

unfortunately americas dependency on oil guarentees saudi arabia can do whatever it wants.

Timothy Weston

A push away from oil will reclaim America’s bargaining power. Saudi Arabia would then have to find a new power to act as a proxy mercenary force.

Linda Coleman Allen

When you get out your bow and arrow, you hit a bulls eye. And you certainly hit one here. This is the most insightful article on the subject matter that I have ever read. Thank you so much for your dedication to God and your fellow man.

1.Who is the “we” as in we rapaciously…
“The US boasts no moral high ground here: we rapaciously took over the land of the indigenous people on this continent, causing heartbreak and devastation that still reverberates across this–and their–land.”
It’s not you and I nor our churches nor our parents or their parents or anyone we know or could know. It wasn’t about greed for the pilgrims; perhaps the Spanish or the French. The colonists?

2. This paragraph is pure conjecture and purports to show an idyllic lifestyle that is simply unlikely.
“Because such communities regularly stayed on the move, following food sources as they became available, they accumulated few possessions. Their intimate knowledge of the natural world around them meant that fifteen or twenty hours a week of work sufficed to take care of their daily needs. They enjoyed the rest of their time with relaxation, family and friend connections, movement from one place to another, and, well, sex.”

3. “good teeth” Very important but we know the Egyptians filled their cavities.

4. Don’t conflate world politics with religion. What governments do by definition is in self-interest. Pat Robinson is expressing a personal opinion hardly binding on his church. “as Pat Robertson and his ilk are doing by saying money from Saudi Arabia matters more than the life of one journalist; then the church has discarded its moral compass.” I notice Pat Robinson is the poster boy for abuse on these sites. I don’t follow him but what I have seen on TV was never objectionable.

5. The period belongs after the word organization. “The stench of greed permeates every church or religious organization. (or almost every one)

Bungarra

The description of Southern Africa is mirrored by the history of human occupation in Australia of > 65,000 years. Sure there have been extinctions of the Mega fauna and the effects of ‘fire stick farming’ in Aust. Humans are Humans.

I have been an Agricultural R&D person specializing in weeds, and I have considered the Story of the expulsion from the Garden has been misinterpreted
by many. It is a warning. We are not God, so we do not have a total understanding of the how the system works, hence we will be bitten on the ‘bum’, often in a most unpleasant and unexpected ways, when our “great” breakthroughs are shown to be incomplete or abusive to the system.

So we have ‘crop mimics’ eg Wild Oats, “Avena Spp” are adapted to survive and flourish in our wheat crops. It is developing resistance to our relatively recent selective herbicides. On a numbers basis, 1 wild oat plant = 1 wheat plant if they germinate at the same time. So 50% wild oats = a 50% loss of crop. Bit hard if you are depending on that crop to feed yourself for the next year.